All of college basketball is a transition game now, whether your team operates the Princeton offense, grinds every opponent with 35 seconds of breathtaking defense or chooses to run at every opportunity.

College basketball players come and go faster than Usain Bolt on his way to the medal stand. If Nike, Adidas and Under Armour have anything to say about it, not even the uniforms will look the same.

The game has become like the pop music scene, in which new acts surge into public view as quickly as they can churn out a three-minute tune, then fade into the background while others supersede them with a number that appears more interesting, or merely newer. One no longer can tell the players without a subscription to Rolling Stone, and many in the audience fade toward nostalgia and dream of the days when everyone stayed four years.

Sorry, we mixed our metaphors there.

It has been a long time since the best players stuck around for four seasons of college basketball, but it hasn’t been all that long since they lasted two or three. Now, we’ve got a reigning NCAA champion, Kentucky, with only one rotation player remaining even though five of its top six players were freshmen or sophomores last season.

You’ve got to know how to survive in such a fast-changing world.

“Situations dictate how you respond,” Kentucky coach John Calipari told Sporting News. “It wasn’t me planning anything. Here’s a situation: How do we deal with this? The young people are the centerpiece of everything we do. We’re going to do right by them and deal with the results of it.”

Calipari says when Derrick Rose first got to Memphis in the fall of 2007, he thought he had his answer at point guard for at least a couple of years. In late February that season, though, with the Tigers trailing Tennessee in a No. 1-vs.-No. 2 showdown at FedEx Forum, Rose did this sort of Guitar Hero solo down the stretch and nearly rescued the Tigers from a deep deficit, finishing with 23 points and five assists. Calipari went into the locker room and told his coaches they’d need a new point guard for the following season.

“Everybody thinks it was this grand design,” Calipari said.

In the sense that he decided he’d work to get the best possible players and mold them into a team, it kind of was, but Calipari now must reinvent the Wildcats on an annual basis. All three of his UK teams have won SEC titles (regular-season or tournament or both), two have reached the Final Four and the most recent won it all.

“We’ll see if it keeps working. Every year is a new year,” Calipari said. “You have new people, so you can’t say, ‘Here’s how we’re going to play.’ I will tell you, it’s pretty exciting stuff.”

That is the best way to approach college basketball these days. There are no sequels, the same formula being trotted out over and over, like what’s left of Chicago or the Doobie Brothers filling the summer amphitheater circuit with hits from 40 years ago.

Change can be thrilling. You just have to brace for it. We’re here to help. On the eve of Midnight Madness, Sporting News examines what’s new for the 2012-13 season:

LEAGUES

Missouri and Texas A&M to the SEC. The Tigers instantly will be the primary challenger to conference kingpin Kentucky. Texas A&M slipped badly last year. A fresh start in a new league can’t hurt, but will the Aggies start losing out on in-state prospects who might prefer to play in the Big 12?

West Virginia and TCU to the Big 12. So long as West Virginia has talent—honestly, the Mountaineers are barely on the right side of that line at the moment—Bob Huggins will coach them into an NCAA-level squad. TCU has almost no basketball history, but Trent Johnson is an effective coach if he finds a way to get some players on the roster. Being a part of a league whose heart is in Texas cannot hurt.

Butler and VCU to the Atlantic 10. With Temple on its way soon to the Big East, the A-10 grabbed two mid-major gems that reached the Final Four this decade.

Nevada and Fresno State to the Mountain West. The Pac-12 will shift back into gear soon, perhaps this season, but for now the MWC is the West’s power conference.

Belmont to the Ohio Valley. The Bruins get regional rivals and lower travel costs, but now they’ll compete with Murray State for the league’s NCAA bid.

Oral Roberts to the Southland. ORU’s old home, the Summit League, found itself a great name but remains an odd conglomeration.

Denver, Seattle, Texas-Arlington, Texas-San Antonio and Texas State to the WAC. Denver’s Pioneers belong here. The Sun Belt teams? Still boggles the mind.

Hawaii to the Big West. A nice spot for a basketball program that needed a home.

COACHES

John Groce, Illinois. Bruce Weber was fired last season after his team imploded down the stretch. Groce built his resume as Thad Matta’s key assistant at Ohio State, then took Ohio to the NCAA Tournament twice in three years and reached the Sweet 16 last March.

Rick Ray, Mississippi State. After 14 seasons, Rick Stansbury retired as Bulldogs coach, a curious move for a 52-year-old man but perhaps better than the alternative. His replacement has been an assistant at Purdue and Clemson but never a Division I head coach.

James Johnson, Virginia Tech. Seth Greenberg had seven winning seasons in nine years at Virginia Tech, and no one there realized how terrific that was. He was fired in April. Johnson has a long track record as an assistant, including at Virginia Tech and as a member of Jim Larranaga’s Final Four staff at George Mason.

Frank Martin, South Carolina. Darrin Horn was unable to gain any traction in four years with the Gamecocks. A major success in his time at Kansas State, Martin grew uncomfortable with his superiors and was looking to be anywhere but Manhattan, Kan.

Johnny Jones, LSU. With Trent Johnson having left for TCU, Jones—a former player and assistant coach with the Tigers—is delighted to be back home.

Bruce Weber, Kansas State. As he proved in 2005 with the Illini, and before that at Southern Illinois, if he has players who fit his motion offense, he can win.

Trent Johnson, TCU. He was successful in 2009 at LSU and before that at Stanford and Nevada.

Tim Miles, Nebraska. Doc Sadler wanted a chance for the program to mature into the Huskers’ Big Ten surroundings. He didn’t get it. Fresh from reaching the NCAAs at Colorado State, Miles also won at North Dakota State. That speaks for itself.

Larry Brown, SMU. The Mustangs won’t be a true BCS team until a year from now, but we can’t ignore a Hall of Famer returning to college hoops after nearly a quarter-century. The easy joke is to wonder if Brown, with a nomad’s soul, will still be in the job by then.

FRESHMEN

Shabazz Muhammad, G/F, UCLA. A dynamic offensive force who plays with incredible energy, his only issue appears to be an NCAA examination of his amateur status.

Nerlens Noel, C, Kentucky. He is not Anthony Davis. Noel lacks the offensive game or the ability to destroy opposing offenses on the perimeter as well as at the rim. But Davis is not Noel, either—a constant, fearsome presence in the lane. He, too, needs the NCAA’s OK.

Sam Dekker, F, Wisconsin. Freshmen rarely start for the Badgers. That’s what everybody keeps saying. But Josh Gasser started two years ago, and he didn’t have Dekker’s talent.

Marcus Smart, G, Oklahoma State. Is he a point guard? A shooting guard? Billy Donovan, who coached him with the U.S. Under-18 national team, isn’t certain. But Donovan does know Smart is a winner.

Rasheed Sulaimon, G, Duke. The Devils needed balance on offense—somebody who can shoot it and drive it, not just one or the other. Sulaimon is the guy.

STARS

A year ago at this time, Thomas Robinson was coming off two seasons in which he hadn’t averaged 15 minutes a game. Then he became an All-American and a lottery pick. College basketball turns nobodies into stars faster than American Idol. Watch these guys this year and see:

Jarnell Stokes, PF, Tennessee. Stokes essentially began his freshman season with only a few hours of practice, then went out and scored nine points against Kentucky’s airtight defense in only 17 minutes. Stokes might be the strongest player in Division I and has great hands and a nice shooting touch. He was a key member of USA Basketball’s FIBA Americas U18 championship team—which means he got lots of practice. “Just imagine what preseason workouts will do for me,” he says.

Elijah Johnson, G, Kansas. Coach Bill Self says Johnson is “really good” and has the opportunity to blossom in the same manner as so many Jayhawks who waited their turn. Last season, Johnson averaged 10.2 points operating as a shooting guard asked to shoot mostly when Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor couldn’t get open. Johnson probably will play the point as a senior and could be terrific.

Wayne Blackshear, SF, Louisville. Debilitating shoulder injuries limited Blackshear’s freshman season to 105 minutes, but 14 of those came in the Final Four against Kentucky. That Rick Pitino trusted a player with such limited experience for so long on such a grand stage said a lot, and the impression Blackshear left with his strength, athleticism and jumper maybe said more.

Michael Carter-Williams, PG, Syracuse. The Orange played four NCAA Tournament games in 2012, and Carter-Williams appeared in none of them. He was buried behind Scoop Jardine and Dion Waiters, who have left behind 49 minutes of playing time and 17 shots per game. MCW is big (6-5) for a point guard, the kind of playmaker who can get 25 points for himself or not score at all and still help his team win.

Adonis Thomas, SF, Memphis. Thomas was a top-15 recruit out of high school, but injuries cost him basically the entire Conference USA season last year. Even while struggling to catch on to college concepts and dealing with physical ailments, he still averaged 8.8 points and shot 40.5 percent from 3-point range. He could carry the Tigers toward the excellence we’ve been expecting of them.